Bedtime tonight? 3-year old EW

[Tweakster]

If you want 12 hrs at night then she can only have a 12 hr A time.  So you would put her to bed at 6 and hope that she does at least 12 hrs.  Just looking at it mathematically, anyway. 

If she naps I'd do a 7 p.m. - you might still only get to 5 or 6 a.m. but at least she will have had a longer night.  Or maybe she will surprise you and tack.

To push the day out and get out of the OT loop I think you would need to offer an earlier nap + later bedtime.  Or like Heidi has suggested, work on cutting or losing the nap and getting to a 12 hr night.

[hanna]

She finally fell asleep at 14.30-16.00 in the car.
We put her down right before 20.00, so almost her normal BT.
She fell asleep right away. Fingers crossed.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Were you able to do a super early bedtime? Mine does not tack on so I have never tried it! But after that short of a night I might have anyways.

[hanna]

No, since she napped for 90 mins that late in the day we put her down at 20.00. She had a brief EW at 5.00 and then slept until 7.05 this morning, so 11 hrs night sleep.
We'll see if she naps today.

[Tweakster]

Fingers crossed for you

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Fx! 11 hour night is great, might be she won't need much of a nap if at all so that perhaps she will sleep a nice night again.

[hanna]

No nap.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hope the night goes okay! How was the mood on  no nap?

[hanna]

Bummer.

She was fine without the nap yesterday. I put her down at 19.00. WU this morning was 06.00. I had hoped for 12 hrs. Should I have put her to bed before 19.00 last night? And she may not nap today either...when do I put her to bed then? If I put her to bed at 18.00, she may wake at 05.00 tomorrow morning if she only sleeps 11 hrs! How do we get back to a 12-hr night without the nap like she used to do?

It seems like she won't be napping on the weekends from now on, and only possibly in the car. She will continue to nap at daycare. I can't influence that. I'm fine with the different BTs as long as we can figure out the no nap days.

Thanks again.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

If her mood is good on an eleven hour night with no nap I would think perhaps her needs have changed and that is all she needs now. 11 hours is a decent night, and for a lot of kids totally normal.

[hanna]

I hear you. She just turned 3 though. When I read about nap dropping in the threads, many suggest doing an 11- hr day. I've never tried that, only 12 hrs.

A 6.00 am - 18.30 the other day gave a 5.30 am next day. I just don't know. She usually only wakes early when she's OT. I'm going to take her for a car ride and hope she takes a short nap. Tomorrow is daycare and she'll nap there.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Tbh I don't think we ever had an 11 hour day when we dropped the nap with the oldest two, and for DD3 she currently does 13 hr days so I could see maybe a 12 hr day at best. Really depends on the child. It may be that until she does not nap at all that her night won't lengthen as even just the naps on daycare days will affect it. I assume they have built in nap time for all kids up to a certain age? Ours does but mine just stopped sleeping by about 24-30 months.

[hanna]

Yes they even have one hour of rest in pre K, where my son is.
My daughter napped 45 mins in the car!

[Tweakster]

Looking at her sleep totals I think the nap may be interfering.  If she has one every few days you might keep it for a while but every day and she will probably shift her day to EW.  11 hrs is good - once the nap is truly gone and with consistency she might give you 12 hr nights.  If she naps and the nap is later in the day and longer than an hour, you probably need a much later bedtime to keep her from waking too early.

It sounds like things are better than they were though,  with some later wu so fingers crossed it continues!

[hanna]

After her 45-minute nap on Sunday she fell asleep at 19.40 and slept until 6.45 monday morning. So that was great.

Monday she napped at daycare from 12.50-14.10. I put her to bed a little later than usual, at 20.10 and she was still chatting and complaining at 20.35 so not sure that was a good idea. But I wanted to see if she'd sleep longer in the morning. She fell asleep at 20.40 and slept until 6.30 today.

So perhaps she needs a later BT when she naps so she'll sleep later than 6.00 am.